The Desire to Play
by The True ZX
Summary: A Mario Superstar Baseball/ Super Sluggers story. When minor characters are benched in favor of the captains, how will they react? Sometimes, they can make some desprate choices... and the pressures of the season doesn't help.
1. United Again

Author's Notes: Please note that this particular Mario Baseball story basically mashes together the two games in the beginning. It becomes more accurate to the Wii game later on.

This story needs a better title, as the current one I believe shows too much of what's to come. Please post some suggestions if you think of any.

Also, I consider Red Toad in these games to be THE Toad (blue vest and red spotted cap). Don't get too confused when he's mentioned.

As always, review and enjoy!

~ZX

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: United Again<strong>

Far off the shores of the Mushroom Kingdom lay a single secluded island that looks more reminiscent of a floating city. This island has but one purpose- sports- and has played host to the whole gambit of popular sports, from tennis to basketball to soccer/football, and even a few karting courses during the grand prix season. However, the island is devoted to one particular sport in the summertime, and that is Baseball. The air is filled with sounds of bats cracking, players sliding and yelling, umpires shouting, and crowds cheering. The season has officially begun.

"Strike Three is called and the batter is OUT!" A sunglasses-wearing Lakitu said from inside the press box high in the stands. "That's the game! The Mario Fireballs have defeated the Peach Monarchs by a score of 1 to 0 in 8 innings."

"This was a spectacular game. Both teams played stunning defense throughout the game. The Kronicle will have no problem front-paging this game." A female pink-shelled Koopa added as she lowered her camera.

"Indeed, Kylie, let's recap this defensive gem for our viewers with our Toad Bank Plays of the Game." The Lakitu replied as he leaned back and slightly relaxed on his black cloud, adjusting his headset.

"Of course, Lakithunder." Kylie started, "The marvels started in the bottom of the first inning when Daisy's line drive destined for the back wall was caught in mid-flight by the second baseman, Green Noki. That remained the only fantastic play until the top of the fifth inning."

"Ah, yes, the spectacular double play in the fifth." Lakithunder mused "A sharp, bouncing hit from the Fireball's Monty Mole between second and third bases intercepted by a sliding Princess Daisy. It was then quickly thrown to Princess Peach at second base for one and smoothly played to Purple Toad at first base for the double play."

"That was a really good play, but this next one definitely gets my vote for THE Play of the Game." Kylie chimed, "The robbed Home Run by Luigi in the bottom of the fifth inning."

"I agree, Kylie. The Fireball thrown by Mario ended up getting crushed deep to center by Toad. For all intents and purposes, that ball should've been gone." Lakithunder said.

"Luigi said otherwise with his superior jumping ability. He snatched it right out of the air just before it soared over the wall. Mario looked like he let out a sigh of relief to know his brother has his back. It definitely would've been a different ball game had that home run actually happened." The pink Koopa added.

"Indeed, we would probably be talking about Peach's 2-0 win after 6, which leads us to our final play of the game. Mario's RBI double in the top of the 8th. Mario brings the Fireball back to the bats as he rockets one down the right field line, scoring Monty Mole from second base. It was the only major offensive play in the entire game, and it brought Mario's team the win today."

"Well, that's all the time we have for today." Kylie said, "Join us next time as the baseball season heats up to see which team captain can chall-"

Suddenly the television screen goes black. A low growling laugh is heard followed by heavy footsteps leaving the room.

Meanwhile, back at Peach's Castle, both teams littered the field in groups as the crowds dispersed. The Piantas, Nokis, and the colored Toads talked in one large group in the outfield, and Toad, Toadette, and Toadsworth were in a different group at third base. The four captains- Mario, Peach, Luigi, and Daisy- stood near home plate.

"Something tells me it was a mistake trying to win this by ourselves." Daisy said to her fellow princess.

"I agree. Maybe our team should combine with Mario's. That way we all can win this together!" Peach replied.

"Having-a you ladies with us will definitely boost our odds at winning. Not to-a mention we're all-a friends here." Luigi chimed in, nervously averting his gaze from the princesses.

"Hmmm… so we-a all agree on this, then?" Mario asked the others, all of them nodding. "Then it's-a settled then. All four of us can-a lead the team. We'll give-a Bowser a run for his-a money."

"Wait, Mario, we still have to decide how to order the team. Who's still playing in the active line-up and who will be backups?" Daisy interjected. "If all four of us are still playing, which of our players are going to take up the other five places?"

"Hmmm, thatsa good question." Luigi said.

"A difficult question." Peach added.

"Well, you won't have to worry about little old me. Heheh." Toadworth spoke up as he approached the group. "This game is too rough on these old bones, so I think I'm done."

"Are you sure? You seemed to be having fun." Peach asked her advisor.

"It was fun, but I'm just not built for playing physical games like this anymore. Give me a chess board, on the other hand…"

"You don't have to completely quit." Daisy interrupted, "You can still be like the manager of the team, setting up the order, field positions, pitcher order, that kind of stuff."

"That sounds perfect." Peach and Toadsworth said simultaneously.

"Now, for-a the rest of the-a team." Mario reminded them, "Luigi and-a I are balanced- able to take up any position- and you ladies are great at pitching and fielding."

"That means we need-a fast runners for base running and outfield, and we need-a power hitters to drive in-a the runs." Luigi surmised.

"Well the two obvious choices for those would be a Pianta for hitting and Toadette for running." Peach suggested. "Toad can fulfill a balanced role as well."

"That-a leaves two places left..." Luigi quietly said.

All four captains stood in silent thought for a couple of moments, deep in thought.

"They'll-a be interchangeable. Depending on-a what team we-a face next we can use certain players." Mario said. "The Nokis are-a quick and can-a use it to field very well, the Pinatas are-a obviously the power hitters, the-a other Toads can-a squeeze into balanced positions but-a some are better at certain positions than others, and Monty Mole is purely for-a more speed."

"Good idea, bro!" Luigi complimented. "Since the team is balanced, we may have to increase a certain aspect to gain an advantage."

"Wow, you certainly thought this out, Mario." Daisy said.

"That's our Mario for you." Peach praised.

"Are you-a ok with this, Lakitu? This is allowable, right?" Mario asked.

"Yeah, yeah." He replied while writing in a notebook, "The last 2 spots are open, but, before every game, you have to tell me who's taking up these spots. Regardless if the order has changed or not."

Suddenly a large, deep howl echoed through the walls of the castle, followed by a large thud. The sudden noise caused all of the players to stop their actions and look around for the source.

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><p><span>Author's Notes:<span> A watcher on DA happened to be the only one vote for this story. He also was the only one to vote period…

This chapter turned out a lot shorter than I expected. (Only 3 pages) This is probably because of the way I decided to go through the actual game (Television-like recap). Since there will be more games in the story, I may incorporate the television program element into the games and word it as though the game is in-progress.


	2. Choices

Disclaimer: All characters, locations, and games mentioned in this story are copyrighted to Nintendo.

This story, in my opinion needs a new title. If you think of one, don't hesitate to tell me.

Please review and enjoy! ~ZX

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Choices…<strong>

Everyone's attention then turned to right-center field when the ground began to lightly rumble. They saw a large brown ape, which they immediately recognized as Donkey Kong, lumbering toward them on all fours. He went straight up to the captains and tried talking to them with a series of hoots and grunts.

"Slow down, Donkey Kong." Peach said, "You know we can't understand you."

"But I can." Lakitu spoke up, "He says he liked watching your game and wants to challenge your teams with one he brought together recently."

Donkey Kong nods and makes a few more grunts.

"He wants it to be a 3 inning practice game, since he doesn't know how his team will play together."

"It's-a ok with me." Mario said before turning back to Luigi and the princesses, "How about-a you three?"

"I'm alright with it if you are." Peach responded.

"More fun for all of us!" Daisy said excitedly.

"We're right behind ya, bro." Luigi finished.

Donkey Kong howls and heads back the way he came, by climbing up the outfield wall. About half an hour later, he appears at the castle entrance with the rest of his team- his nephew Diddy Kong with his girlfriend Dixie Kong, two Koopa Troopas (one red shell and one green shell), two Paratroopas (one red shell and one green shell), a Goomba, and a Paragoomba. Team Donkey Kong immediately went to the visitors' dugout and began to get ready to start. Mario's revised team was already in the field doing drills, using two Nokis for their open positions. Daisy insisted that speed would be necessary when facing a heavy hitter like Donkey Kong, as well as scooping up the chip hits by most of the remaining players. After a few minutes, the teams switched, with DK's team doing outfield drills while Mario's team took practice swings.

By the time the game started, the stands were sparsely populated. The largest group was made of the inactive players from Mario's team- The yellow and pink Piantas, green Noki, Monty Mole, and purple, blue, yellow, and green Toads- all sitting near Home Plate. Mario's team was in the outfield for the top of the first inning with Mario pitching, blue Pianta catching, Toadette at first, Toad at second, the red and blue Nokis at shortstop and third, Peach in center, Daisy in right field, and Luigi in left field. The first to bat for DK's team was the Paragoomba. He swung at the first pitch, but missed for a strike. The next pitch, Paragoomba hit a slow grounder, which was easily fielded by Toad to Toadette for the first out. The next batter was Dixie Kong, who held her bat in what could only be referred to as the reverse grip. For Mario's first pitch, she visibly wound up to swing, but let it pass by the outside of the plate for ball one. Mario then threw a fastball curving over the outside of the plate. Dixie swung at this one, but swung slightly late, sending it skipping down the third base line. The blue Noki picked it up while sliding and threw it across the diamond to Toadette, narrowly beating out Dixie for out number two. The third batter was Diddy Kong, who did a cart-wheel on his way up to home plate. Mario's first pitch curved over the inside corner of the plate for strike one. He repeated the same pitch, but Diddy Kong adjusted and managed to hit it past Toad for a single to left-center field.

The team's fourth hitter, often referred to as the cleanup hitter, was none other than Donkey Kong himself. He lumbered up to the plate using not a bat, but a large boxing glove on his left hand. Mario stood at the pitcher's mound, rubbing his chin with his right hand, thinking of how to approach Donkey Kong. With Donkey Kong clearly being a power hitter, he'll be swinging for the fences. It could be dangerous if DK was allowed to score; especially with the game is only 3 innings long and not knowing how their defense will be set up. Mario's first pitch passes over the outside corner of the plate for strike one. He follows up with a fastball slightly inside, which DK swings and drives foul for strike two. For the third pitch, Mario tries to throw a changeup, but it leaves his hand prematurely, causing the ball to arch a bit and travel slightly slower as it travelled to the plate. DK seized the opportunity and swung with all of his might.

*BAM!* The ball flew straight back to the pitcher at thrice the speed. Mario barely dodged by diving to the right side of the mound. The ball's rapid backspin caused it to hiss as it passed him and continued past second base. After passing the base, the ball's spin started affecting its trajectory as it began rising upward into the air. Peach watched as it rose too high for her or Daisy to reach when she suddenly heard behind her:

"I think-a I can get it."

She, as well as Daisy in right, looked back to see Luigi standing near the outfield wall. He used his superior jumping ability to super jump up the wall, then jump off of the wall to try to intercept the ball. Time seemed to slow for everyone as Luigi flew upwards towards the bullet-like baseball. Luigi managed to catch the ball in the net of his glove at the peak of his jump, but the speed the ball was travelling at caused Luigi to start a back flip on his way down. He flipped twice before landing on all fours near Peach at the back wall.

"Do you still have control of the ball?" Lakitu shouted from behind home plate.

Luigi was slow to get up, but when he did, everyone noticed a pained expression on his face from the fall. The sparse crowd let out a collective "oooohh" before noticing Luigi open up his glove with the ball still inside.

"Yes!" Luigi replied, which sent the whole crowd into cheers.

Donkey Kong stood at second base, mouth agape in shock of the miraculous catch. Diddy soon joined him at second with the same expression on his face. Both stood there for a minute stunned before finally going back to the visitor's dugout to take to the field.

The bottom of the first inning started with Luigi first at bat. In the field, Donkey Kong was pitching- which surprised the Fireballs- Paragoomba at catcher, Diddy at first, Dixie at second, Goomba at third, and Green Koopa at shortstop. Red Koopa took center field, Paratroopa took left field, and Green Paratroopa took right field. As previously anticipated by Daisy, Donkey Kong's pitching was fairly straight, as two consecutive fastballs rocked over home. The first flew straight over the center of the plate, but Luigi didn't react in time since it was so much faster than Mario's normal pitches, and the second pitch took an inside track. Luigi quickly took note of DK's position and scooted slightly towards the plate. DK's third pitch was slightly slower, but it had a gradual curve to it, heading over the outside corner of the plate. Luigi swung at this pitch, which sent it bouncing between second and third, and narrowly passed Goomba for a single. He breathed a sigh of relief after reaching first, knowing it would've been an out regardless if he had swung or not. He then turned his head toward home plate to see Daisy- his crush and the Mushroom Kingdom's sports expert- approaching the plate. He then saw her turn toward him, subtly dust off her shoulder once and wink at him. The wink caused Luigi to look down and away in embarrassment, but the shoulder action spoke to him, since Daisy and Peach introduced a new signal system to the team shortly before the game's start. As Daisy took her place on the right side of the plate, Luigi took a few steps off of first base and kept his eyes on DK.

As soon as he saw DK start winding up to pitch, Luigi made a break for second base. Daisy had no time to adjust to the ball speeding toward the left side of the plate, but still swung and connected with the end of her bat. The slightly late swing sent the ball rocketing down the left field line and rolling all the way to the back wall. Luigi rounded second and easily made his way to third, while Daisy rounded first and ran toward second. Paratroopa managed to get the ball and immediately threw it to second to intercept the tomboy princess. The throw was going to be close, Daisy knew so she dove into second base, narrowly making it to the base before the ball reached Dixie's glove.

Donkey Kong started getting nervous as the ball returned to him. With two runners in a scoring position so soon, he knew he'd have to ramp up his game. He turned to home to see Princess Peach coming up to bat. Knowing that her hits aren't as strong as the other humans on the team, DK knew what to attempt. From home plate, Peach saw DK move to the right side of the pitcher's mound and deliver a fastball to the right side of the plate. She let it pass for strike one. DK followed with the same pitch, but Peach swung and missed for strike two. He then moved to the left side of the pitchers mound and threw a slower curveball that curved to the right side of home. Peach connected and hit a rolling single between first baseman Diddy and second baseman Dixie, which scored Luigi and advanced Daisy to third.

Mario now approached the plate as the cleanup hitter for the team, which was a small surprise for DK's team. He walked up to home and took DK's first pitch, which was a curve toward the inside of the plate, for strike one. Mario then backed off the plate nodding his head and turned toward Peach. Making sure DK couldn't see, he held his hands off to his side and stacked his fists together twice- another sign- before returning back to the plate. DK's second pitch was a fastball going straight down the middle, and Mario swung at it. Unfortunately for Mario, the ball was traveling faster than he anticipated and he fouled it off to the stands in right field. Repeating the same signal to Peach, Mario returned to home plate to await the next pitch. Just before DK released the ball, Mario's bat began giving off a crimson aura- as if the bat itself was on fire. Mario swung the flaming bat and the ball rocketed off toward the outfield as a fireball, narrowly missing both Donkey Kong and Dixie Kong, and settled just left of center fielder Red Koopa. Peach, took off as soon as she heard the bat connect with the ball, while Daisy waited for it to clear the infield, which didn't take long, before scoring at home. Peach was rounding second and about to run to third base when Red Koopa picked up the ball. Red Koopa threw the ball as hard as he could and Goomba managed to get the ball and tag Peach out before she could reach third. Mario elected to stay at first. DK managed to keep the Mario Fireballs to only two runs by striking out the Blue Pianta, and using his signature Barrel Pitch to cause the Blue Noki to ground out to first.

As he lumbered on all fours back to the dugout to start the second inning, DK started to have second thoughts of being able to succeed with his ragtag team, but he didn't want to end the game just yet since he still had a chance to catch up. Since DK was the last to bat in the first inning, Goomba approached the left side of the plate with the bat hovering next to it. Mario's first pitch was fouled off to right for strike one, his next pitch passed outside for ball one. Mario then tried an experimental pitch- He threw his normal fastball but he also added a curve to it, which caused the ball to almost unnoticeably curve toward Goomba. Goomba swung at the ball, which caused it to bounce violently toward second. Toad managed to grab it by jumping, and passed it to Toadette for the first out. Mario used the same experimental pitch on Green Paratroopa, but he hit a high fly ball to shallow left field and dropped just behind Blue Noki for a single. Green Koopa was next to approach the plate. Mario's first pitch to him was a successful changeup for strike one, and the next pitch traveled off the left side of the plate for ball one. The next pitch was an off-speed pitch down the middle, which Green Koopa connected with and hit past Toadette and a diving Toad for a single and allowed Green Paratroopa to advance to third. Now with runners on first and third and one out, Red Paratroopa approached the plate. Trying to make Paratroopa bite and get a groundout to get a double play and end the inning, Mario threw inside curves. Paratroopa moved back from the right side of the plate and let the first two pitches pass for balls. The third pitch he zeroed in on it and swung but the ball rolled foul before anyone could reach it. Mario changed up his strategy by throwing to the opposite side of the plate. The first one Mario lost control of and it almost soared far left of Blue Pianta, who only caught it because of his long arms. Mario then threw another successful changeup that actually curved to the inside of the plate. Since the pitch was travelling slower, the curve was greater and it almost hit Paratroopa, who jumped over the ball.

"That's Ball Four." Lakitu said. "Take your base."

As Red Paratroopa went to first and Green Koopa advanced to second, Peach, Daisy, and Luigi walked up to the pitcher's mound.

"What's going on, bro?" Luigi asked. "You were-a doing great before."

"This is so close to the previous game we played. Maybe he's getting tired?" Daisy asked, which was followed by a nod from Mario.

"I thought-a I'd last longer than-a this, but I guess I was-a wrong." Mario said. "I think-a I can finish the inning, but someone else will-a have to pitch the last one."

"I'll gladly take over Mario." Peach offered, which Mario gave a thumbs up to.

"You can do this. We know you can." Daisy said to cheer him up.

"Don't-a forget, we're all-a backing you up." Luigi added.

"Alright, let's-a finish this." Mario said as he turned his head to see the final batter in DK's order- Red Koopa.

Mario looked back to make sure the other three had resumed their places in the outfield, as well as to check the runners. He stretched his arms quickly before turning back to Red Koopa. The first pitch was fast and curved slightly inside for strike one, the second was a changeup that was swung at for strike two. The third pitch was a curve from the far left side of the plate curving toward the middle, which Koopa connected with. The ball skipped underneath Mario and managed to roll past Red Noki at shortstop and Toad at second into center field. Green Paratroopa scores immediately, while Green Koopa rounded third and began running home. The ball slowed as it entered the outfield, and Peach had to run toward the infield to grab it. Using her Quick Throw ability, she passes the ball to Red Noki at shortstop to stop Red Paratroopa from advancing past second before throwing it to home plate. Time once again seemed to slow as everyone watched the ball and Green Koopa converge on Blue Pianta. Pianta took a step in front of the plate and stretched out his arm and caught the ball, then rotated his body left and tagged Green Koopa, who was ducked in his shell sliding into home plate.

"Out!" Lakitu called, "That's the second out."

The top of the second ended with Mario striking out the next batter, Paragoomba.

Donkey Kong had seen enough of the game. He exited the dugout and began lumbering towards Mario waving at him when something caught his eye. Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Daisy met up with him at home plate.

"You-a ok, Donkey Kong?" Mario asked, noticing him spacing out.

DK simply pointed upwards over left-center field, and the same object soon caught the other captains' attentions. It was a large object shaped like a raindrop rolling along a surface, with two glowing elongated rings circling it. The object was sky blue save for a transparent top of the front and a strip of windows along the sides.

"Mommy, mommy, stop the ship!" A little blonde girl yelled as she ran through a long white hallway toward a doorway at the end. "You've gotta see this!"

She ran through the open doorway and quickly stopped on the other side. She was a very young girl (only a few years old) with long flowing blonde hair that went down to the small of her back. Her eyes were a bright green, and she wore a white Cosmo flower in her hair over the left side of her head and bangs almost hanged over her right eye, and a black metal tiara with red and blue gems adorned her head. She wore a deep violet and white striped dress (that ended at her knees) with thin straps over her shoulders, an amethyst colored bangle bracelet, and violet boots. She quickly fixed her dress before approaching the blonde-haired woman attending the large ship's wheel.

"Mom, you gotta see this, there's an island down there with a lot of people, come on!" The girl said as she grabbed the arm of the woman at the wheel wearing a long flowing teal dress and a platinum crown on her head, Princess Rosalina, and almost pulled her as she led her over to the large window at the front of the ship. They both looked down over the island seeing the stadiums and the people within them.

"They look like they're playing a big game down there, see?" the girl said pointing at Peach's Castle Stadium.

"I do, Hana. It looks like they're having fun down there." Rosalina answered. "I even see a few people I know down there."

"Can we go down there and have fun and play too, mom?" Hana asked looking up to Rosalina with an excited look on her face.

"I'm sorry, Hana Ko dear," Rosalina said with a sad look on her face as she knelt down and held her daughter's hands "but we have places to go to right now. We'll have to try again some other time when we have free time."

"Oh… ok." Was all Hana replied as she turned back to the window with a sad look on her face.

Rosalina began walking back to the ship's helm, when she suddenly stopped halfway. She turned back to Hana, who continued staring out at the island below them.

"Maybe you can ask them if we can join next time?" She suggested.

"Maybe I should…" Hana realized. "Can you keep the ship here while I write a letter?"

"Sure, my dear."

"YAY!" Hana shouted as she started running back down the hall she came from.

Rosalina couldn't help but giggle to herself before looking back over the island.

"I-it stopped…" Peach said as the object began to hover over the ocean past left field.

"What is-a it?" Luigi asked

"Never mind that for now." Mario said before turning back to Donkey Kong. "Why were you-a waving me down for, DK?"

DK began to speak in hoots and grunts, but like before, he wasn't understood by the four captains before the umpire Lakitu approached the group.

"He says he's seen enough and would like to call the game here." Lakitu said before facing DK, "Are you sure?"

DK nods before speaking again.

"His team is not working out right now and is going to disband it." Lakitu translated, "He would like for himself, Diddy, and Dixie to join your team instead while the rest of the team is free to join whatever team they wish."

"Hmmm, we're gonna have to think about it." Mario said after a few seconds of silence.

DK simply nods and lumbers back to the dugout. Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Daisy walk back up to the pitcher's mound to decide if they want to accept DK's offer.

"I just don't-a know what to do now." Mario said as he scratched his chin.

"You and-a me both, bro." Luigi added.

"He may be a big help to us. You saw how he almost hit a homerun on us. We could use more power hitting like that." Daisy said.

"Yes, but Diddy and Dixie… What are their skills? If we get DK, we also get those two." Peach replied, "If we're going to recruit them, we are going to have to know their skills also."

"Sounds-a like we'll have to put them through a few play tests to see where their-a talents are." Mario mused while still scratching his chin.

"We can already rule out power for those two." Daisy chimed in, "We saw that during that part of the game we just played. They don't appear to have the strength to drive the baseball far, so their talents have to lie elsewhere. Diddy in particular seemed to run very fast."

"They are all-a monkeys also." Luigi chimed in, "They have an exceptional climbing ability, which can lead to them catching possible homeruns."

"Very smart, Luigi." Daisy complimented, which caused Luigi to blush and turn away from her.

"So are you saying we just found our outfielders?" Peach asked

"I believe-a so." Mario answered, "Are we all-a in favor of bringing them onto our team?"

All four captains raise their right hands and nod.

"It's-a settled then." Mario said happily, "Our team now has three new members."

Something suddenly caught Luigi's eye as he looked back toward the unknown ship. Something small flew out over the field before the ship began moving again and quickly flew out of sight.

"That ship just left." Luigi said, "But before it did-"

"Look!" Daisy interrupted as she noticed something floating down toward the captains.

"I got it." Mario said as he caught the object in his hands, which was revealed to be an envelope addressed to Mario and Peach. "It's-a for Peach and-a me."

"It is?" Peach said as she circled behind Mario to get a better view.

"Who else would it be from…?" Mario asked himself as he opened it. Daisy and Luigi decided to go talk to DK about their decision.

While the "To" address on the front of the envelope was written in fancy cursive handwriting, the writing inside appeared as though a child had written it in careful print. It read:

"We saw your big game down there. It looks like fun. Is it ok if we play with you when we come back?"

Looking at the bottom of the letter, Peach and Mario saw two names at the bottom. They both recognized Rosalina's signature, which was written in the same fancy cursive as on the front of the envelope. The other name, Hana, was in the print style featured inside the letter, but neither of them recognized the name.

"So that was Rosalina's ship that was flying near the stadium." Peach stated as Mario gave her the letter.

"Yeah." Mario simply replied, "But we don't know who Hana is…"

"We'll just have to find out when they return." Peach said as Daisy, Luigi, and DK returned.

"Ok," Daisy started, "now we just have to find out how we should order our team… again."

"Well, we know that-a Diddy is a fast character, so maybe we should-a make a trade-off. Speed for-a Speed?" Mario suggested.

"We have plenty of speedy people on our team." Daisy added, "Maybe Dixie can fill in for one of them also? Maybe the Nokis or Toadette?"

"NOT Toadette!" Peach defended, "She's the fastest player on our roster."

"But both those Kongs can throw better, and their Clamber ability gives them wider use on the field." Daisy replied.

"Then-a comes the matter of-a Donkey Kong himself." Luigi stated, "Having-a two power hitters is-a better than-a one."

"How about an 'upgrade' so to speak?" Peach suggested, "Toad for DK?"

"We want our team to be balanced. Having more balanced characters like him helps us because he can go to any position." Daisy said.

"I-a say DK for Pianta." Mario said, "DK's Clamber is-a much more useful than-a Pianta's Laser Beam throw."

"Why not-a have two power hitters, Mario?" Luigi asked.

"Because-a we're increasing the team's power at the-a expense of other areas. I think it-a throws off the team's balance." Mario answered.

DK simply stood with the other four captains as their debate continued on into the evening. By the time night fell onto Sports Island, the captains finally reached a compromise and a decision.

"So we-a all agree on this?" Mario said looking at the other four captains.

"I guess…" Peach said reluctantly.

"Looks good to me." Daisy answered.

"It'll take a while to adjust, but I have-a no problems with this." Luigi added, and DK followed by giving a thumbs up.

"Ok, we'll-a go with this for now. If there's any problems, we can-a always change this down the road." Mario said to the group. "It's getting dark, we can-a show the rest of the team this and-a start practicing with this lineup tomorrow."

And at that, the group of captains began to disperse. Peach and Daisy returned to the castle at the stadium, Mario and Luigi began walking back to their own stadium off to the south, and Donkey Kong climbed out of the stadium to head back to his own home jungle stadium. None of the five captains had any idea what new challenges could potentially await them in the new day.

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><p><span>Author's Notes:<span> I apologize for the long wait for this chapter. Having Writer's Block is the worst, especially when you factor in waves of depression. Speaking of depression, I'll be going back to all of my currently published stuff and removing that depressive stuff in the A/Ns. I see it now as kind of a desperate cry for attention, and venting it like that wasn't smart on my part.

The story will take a shift in perspective to the actual main characters (for this story) in the next chapter. This current title for the story also will be shown. Unexpected things await!

I give AleneStar of DeviantArt all credit for the character Hana (Full name- Hana Ko Stal). She has essentially retired from posting any new art, but her cute style of artwork captivated me. Having Hana Ko (whom is Princess Rosalina's daughter, if you couldn't tell) in this story is my version of a tribute to her. Maybe this won't be her last appearance…

I'm actually going to begin work on my PMD collab story now on my cousins' requests. I hope to have all 3 chapter 1s done by Christmas so they can look over them. Once I have their approval, they'll be posted. After those Chapter 1s are done, I'll just go with whatever I enjoy working on at the moment. Enjoy your Christmas and have a Happy New Year!


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